DISTRACTED TORIES NEED A RETURN OF THE CRIME BUSTERS

BRITAIN’S summer crime wave has finally set the sirens ringing in Downing Street and the Prime Minister has pledged action to tackle the spate of robberies by moped gangs around the country.

But she should brace herself for intensifying pressure to come up with a detailed strategy for combating rising levels of violent offences in general. Vicious muggings, knife attacks and shootings are all on the increase.

“The Tories used to be the party of low taxes and law and order,” one backbencher told me. “We don’t seem to stand for either at the moment.”

Home Secretary Sajid Javid took on his new post insisting that countering terrorism and sorting out the Windrush migration scandal were his top priorities. Both are pressing yet he cannot allow the Home Office to become complacent about the surge in street crime.

Many grassroots Tories yearn for a return of the uncompromising approach to crime busting last seen at the Home Office in the early 1990s under Michael Howard. They believe his “prison works” slogan and refusal to accept that the rising crime levels can be reversed helped lay the ground for the fall in serious offences seen in subsequent years.

Tory backbencher Philip Davies, one of the few to publicly raise concerns, this week called for a debate on “how out of touch this House is with public opinion”, highlighting crime as a key area.

At Business Questions in the Commons on Thursday he told MPs: “It is clearly also out of touch with public opinion on sending more criminals to prison, which clearly the public want to do whereas the House always wants to send fewer.”

Mr Javid and his predecessor Amber Rudd have faced feeble opposition from Labour on the issue of violent crime. Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott displayed a shaky grasp of police resource levels during last year’s general election campaign and has been more interested in campaigning for the Government to go soft on illegal immigration ever since.

As frequently happens at Westminster, poor opposition can encourage poor policy.

In his first weeks at the Home Office Mr Javid has impressed colleagues by demonstrating clear communication skills and a determination to be his own boss. To make a success of what is often seen as the most difficult job in government he will have to apply those attributes to some oldfashioned Tory crime busting.